Does a windows 8.1 oem key still work for a windows 10 installation

[lexluthermiester]

My win 7 64 pro system builder bought from Newegg and win 7 64 home OEM (from a cyberpower) keys didn't work with Win 10 activation, and they are legit and activate fine with 7. Thats fine with me, because I just ended up sticking with Win 7 and will go to 8.1 when 7 period ends in a year, or I will buy a 10 key at that time. But while a lot of people say they still activate, mine didn't. Funny enough, I have used four different motherboards with that same Win 7 64 system builder key and no issues activating in 7.

To be fair, the OP is talking about Win 8.1. It's possible that MS is allowing 8/8.1 keys to activate 10.

 

[erpguy53]

To be fair, the OP is talking about Win 8.1. It's possible that MS is allowing 8/8.1 keys to activate 10.

MS is still allowing it. the embedded win8.1 oem key on my dad's Toshiba laptop (which was purchased near the end of 2013), still worked when upgrading to win10 and win10 was activated automatically by digital license

 

[Ruru]

Feels like that it works with pure luck what I've read.

Heh, when installed W10 on this setup, I had luckily a serial on my warehouse HDD on a txt file. I'm 99% sure that I've bought that serial when I've been drunk since I have no clue where it's from.

e: Didn't activate with MS account, dunno why. IIRC this is the 3rd serial on my MS account, dammit.

 

[Flyordie]

You can install Windows 10 without a key entirely, and quite easily, but it won't be licensed and will harass you forever. No matter which way you look at it, your non-Windows 10 key will not activate Windows 10.

My Windows 7 Professional key activated my Windows 10 Pro installation.

 

[johnspack]

I'll bet they still allow win7 to upgrade. I will never try, linux all the way baby! But yeah, I bet they will allow it.... They want everyone on win10, so why not?

 

[Shou Miko]

I am still using my original Windows 8 Pro key and I reinstalled in November 2019 or something only thing I had to do was talk to a woman at microsoft saying it started to ask for activation after reinstalling and she cleared the key.

Honestly I changed board and cpu back in August 2019 no issues until reinstall Microsoft just need to realize normal people do change hardware sometimes and do like if the Windows 10 hardware id changes and the key is legit it should automatically just clear it after 5 times of hardware id change or something so we will never have a problem.

 

[Athlonite]

I am still using my original Windows 8 Pro key and I reinstalled in November 2019

You time traveler you

 

[Shou Miko]

You time traveler you

Well it's right next to my computer table in a DVD rack I use for games so it's always handy dandy and ready to be used

 

[Space Lynx]

give me stock market tips @puma99dk|

Kappa

 

[Shou Miko]

give me stock market tips @puma99dk|

Kappa

That will leave you crashing and burning never been good with stocks in the first place @lynx29

 

[Space Lynx]

That will leave you crashing and burning never been good with stocks in the first place @lynx29

nah mate, i was making a joke because the other guy said you were a time traveler, and you had a typo saying you were from November 2019...

 

[Shou Miko]

nah mate, i was making a joke because the other guy said you were a time traveler, and you had a typo saying you were from November 2019...

Just having a bad week still battling with Windows 10 and it's general issues it has but at least my computer is stable and no crashes

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

I ran into issues last December when I upgraded a motherboard and CPU. It was with a retail Windows 8 key that I had used to upgrade to Windows 10 long ago under my MSA. I actually had been using the key under 8.1 for MCE use, but with a new CPU, I figured it was time to go to Win10. I was only using the key on one machine, same storage and case, etc—something I’ve done before. Still, Windows 10 wouldn’t activate, with cryptic error codes that basically said the key is not valid. I was signed into my MS account, which I thought was supposed to help with these sort of changes. I also tried an old Windows 7 key that had also been upgraded to 10, but same error.

Nothing I tried worked, so I called support. It took a few calls to India, and eventually MS remoted in to my PC, asked for visual proof of purchase of my new hardware, proof of purchase of my Windows 8 key (glad I kept the email), and then they gave me a new key. It was a really weird experience, to be honest. Much harder than it needed to be, IMO. They also told me that my old key for 8 will no longer work. I also have an iMac, and I must say, it’s nice to be able to install/reinstall macOS without these concerns. I’m still not sure why it all fell apart. Maybe I did too many hardware changes, but I thought that was not a problem with a retail key.

 

[jboydgolfer]

i have used win7 keys as of a few months ago, but im not sure, if it will on 8, or if it is still active. mine was OEM. worst case scenario, just try it.

@Darmok N Jalad , where the walls fell

 

[Naki]

This very much works.
However, if you had a Windows 7 Home Basic/Home Premium key, this is what you get - Windows 10 Home.
So, not any option for me, as Home edition lacks the MS RDC, which I use on my PCs all the time.